Geneva Healthcare defends Clients’ rights to choose

Geneva Healthcare has recently faced criticism
from some support workers who are part of the union opposing
the company’s new online homecare service, My Homecare,
giving Geneva’s clients the right to choose who cares for
them.

“Geneva supports vulnerable Clients - those with a
disability, illness, recovering from injury or the
elderly,” says Veronica Manion, Geneva’s Chief
Executive. “Personal care, by nature, is a personal right,
so how empowering is it to get a say about who comes into
your home. We think most New Zealanders would find it
extremely reassuring knowing they had a choice in who was
coming into their home to care for them or a family
member”, she adds.

According to the Health & Disability
Commissioner, everyone (clients) using a health or
disability service in New Zealand is protected by a code of
rights, The Code of Health and Disability Services
Consumers' Rights. It specifies clients have the “right to
be fully informed” and the “right to make an informed
choice and give informed consent.”

“My Homecare has
been created with the people we care for in mind, New
Zealanders who are vulnerable and in need of support. It’s
important for us to ensure we give those people ‘a
voice,’ after all, it is their life we’re talking about
here. We’ve listened to them and responded with a
technology solution that gives them choice, control and
visibility of information to assist them to make informed
decisions. In many other aspects of our lives, we get to
choose who we would prefer. When we call a doctor, a
counsellor, a dentist, a hairdresser or a masseuse, we get
to ask for our preference; after that it becomes a matter of
deciding whether it’s important for us to wait for an
appointment with our preferred provider of that service; or
our needs might be urgent enough that we just opt for
who’s available who’s equally qualified. Why should it
not be the same with choosing who should provide personal
care? We had an elderly male client who had prostate cancer
and needed assistance with going to the toilet and spoke
very little English. He and his family insisted on having a
male support worker who could speak their language and
providing the right person to provide that support made a
huge difference to his wellbeing”, she says.

With My
Homecare, Clients are given the option to manage their care
services online including choosing the services they need
and choosing their own qualified and Geneva Certified
Support Workers based on Carer’s skillset, training, and
location. Client’s requests are then reviewed by Geneva
Care Coordinators so that Geneva can provide clinical
governance and find the best match, just like in its current
model of care. Geneva has so far received very good feedback
from the DHBs where the platform is being
trialled.

Ms. Manion shares the concerns for better
support worker pay and conditions. She agrees the current
payment for carer transport costs is not fair and regrets
Geneva was not involved when the legislation was discussed
and designed between the government and the unions. She is
keen for Geneva to take an active part in reviewing this
funding structure to look for better solutions.

She also
said Geneva’s Support Worker Mobile App that automatically
logs start and finish of cares, as well as carers' travel
times, creates transparency and increases the reliability of
data against government funding. While some were initially
concerned, there’s a greater number of support worker
advocates singing the Apps praises. “It's been a breeze
using it. I really don’t know why I got so worked up over
changing to Geneva LIVE Mobile App. I’m looking forward to
using it more”, says one support worker. “I certainly
would recommend the new Geneva LIVE Mobile App to other
support workers. It is easy, very convenient and has added
features to use. It is so much quicker than the time
involved using a paper timesheet. By the time you have got
the paper timesheet out, found a pen, waited for your Client
to sign the paper timesheet, it might have taken up to ten
minutes. The Geneva LIVE Mobile App instantly uploads your
job to payroll once you click ‘end job’, you don't have
to think about it again.” says another Geneva support
worker from Whangarei.

“At the end of the day, we are
dealing with people and managing the need for change. Change
can be quite scary but at times inevitable and something we
need to embrace so we can do our job. The demand for
healthcare services is always increasing, and we need to
find smart solutions to balancing the funding pressure from
the government with the need for more healthcare workers.
Automation is one solution that can help us to become more
efficient and do what’s required of us. The more we
automate things, the more money we can use on giving back to
our staff”, says Ms
Manion.

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